When her shoulders drooped, he fought the urge to wrap her in his arms and comfort her. If he ever had her in his arms, comforting would not be where it stopped.
“So what do we do now?” She raised worried amber eyes to his, and his heart slammed against his chest. He didn’t want her needing him, looking to him for answers, expecting him to be the rock she could cling to through this escalating mess.
He shrugged and turned away, avoiding her gaze. “We call the sheriff, report this. Then you go to work and watch your back. Don’t talk about this incident or the investigation to anyone.”
She acquiesced with a weary nod.
He dug his cell out of his pocket and flipped it open. No signal. “Damn it.”
“Yeah. Cell phones are just about worthless around here. Reception is pitiful. Maybe we can use the church’s land line.” She glanced toward the church door then back at him. “Meantime, why don’t you plan to meet me at lunch? I can show you where I found the files in my attic, and you can look for more files while I’m at work.”
Reyn rubbed his hands over his face. The threat against them changed everything. He’d wanted to avoid getting more involved with Olivia, hoped to keep her at arm’s length until he made arrangements for Gram’s extended care and could get out of town. But now he felt a responsibility for her safety. He had to make sure nothing happened to her because of the trouble they’d stirred up. And she wasn’t going to give up, no matter how much he insisted. That much was clear. He blew out a harsh breath. “Yeah. Okay.”
“And I want to go when you look into the coroner’s report.”
“Would you listen if I said no?”
“Nope.” She flashed him a saucy grin.
Even this early in the morning, the Louisiana sun and humidity raised a sheen of perspiration on his skin. He swiped away a trickle of sweat from his cheek with his shoulder.
“That’s what I thought.”
The truth of the matter was, until he was certain she would be safe, he’d have to keep close tabs on Olivia. He’d never forgive himself if something happened to her because of this can of worms they’d opened. Anger twisted a knot in his gut. Who the hell could have left that note and what were they hiding?
“Reyn?”
Her voice quivered, and with dread squeezing his chest, he faced her. Her eyes were wide with trepidation, her face pale.
“When Lila first suggested the fire at your house wasn’t an accident, I didn’t really take her seriously. But I’m starting to wonder if—just maybe—someone could have set the fire that killed your mom? Do you think she was…murdered?”
A shudder raced through him, and his stomach pitched. “I don’t know what to think. But…it’s a possibility we have to consider.”
“If so, then…what’s to stop this person from killing again to keep us from finding him out?”
He saw her tremble, watched her pull her bottom lip between her teeth, and before he could fight his instincts, he drew her into his arms.
Holding her tightly, he absorbed her quivers and nestled her head in the curve of his throat. With her face buried against him, she fit perfectly under his chin. The press of her soft curves along his body stirred an elemental longing inside him, a male response to the sensual woman he held.
She felt good in his arms. So good. It had been a long time since he held a woman. Even longer since he’d allowed himself to offer his arms for comfort. He filled his lungs with the light floral scent of her shampoo and reveled in the silky feel of her hair against his cheek. He admitted his own nerves had been jumpy and holding her soothed his edginess, gave him a chance to center himself.
Her arms circled his waist, and she grew still, clinging to him, firing a protectiveness inside him that clawed his soul. He said a silent prayer that this time he wouldn’t fail, that he wouldn’t let this woman down. Too much was at stake.
The crunch of gravel broke the spell of the moment and drew his attention to the sedan that pulled into the parking lot and stopped under the shade of a nearby tree. Olivia tensed and raised her head to see who’d driven up. When she spotted the tall, lean man stepping out of the sedan, her body relaxed. He seemed familiar to Reyn, and he searched his memory to place the middle-aged man.
“Olivia? Is everything all right, dear?” The man closed his car door and approached them.
Olivia gave Reyn’s chest a pat as she backed out of his hold. She gave the man a polite smile, not the beguiling one she’d used on Reyn so often. “Reverend, have you met Lila’s grandson? Reyn, this is our minister, Reverend Halmon.”
The men shook hands and exchanged greetings before the minister aimed a concerned look toward Olivia. “Is everything all right here? You seem upset.”
“Actually, we…” She glanced up at Reyn, her face dark. “We need to use the phone in the office to call the sheriff.”
The man blinked his surprise. “The sheriff? What’s happened?”
“Someone left a—”
“Someone vandalized her car,” Reyn interrupted, knowing they’d better not give anyone, even the minister, any more information than necessary. Not until they could begin to sort out what was going on, and who might be involved. “We just need to report it.”
Olivia gave him a questioning look, then nodded her understanding.
“Gracious. Well, by all means. Follow me. I just stopped by to pick up a book I left here. I was beginning work on my sermon for Sunday…” The minister’s voice faded as he headed to the door of the church with Olivia behind him. Reyn took a moment to lock the incriminating note inside his truck before following them inside the church.
When he stepped inside the back door, he glanced down the short, dim hallway and saw light spilling from a room near the far end. He heard Olivia’s voice drift from the same room. Passing a bulletin board with colorful flyers tacked to it with pushpins, a stack of metal folding chairs and a narrow table with an open Bible, he made his way toward the end of the hall.
“That’s right. I’d left it parked in the church lot overnight, since the end of services really,” he heard Olivia say.
Across from the office, he noticed a men’s room and decided to use the facilities before they left. The hinges squeaked when he pushed the door open and he flipped on the light. The room was eerily silent, like the pall in a funeral home, and the pungent scent of pine disinfectant assailed him. As he stepped in and let the door close, a flash of memory flickered in his mind.
As a boy, overwhelmed by guilt and grief, he’d fled his mother’s funeral and hidden in this very room, crouched in a corner with tears streaming down his face. Pain sliced through him, filled his chest with a leaden ache. He hadn’t allowed himself to think about his mother, his loss for years.
Do you think she was…murdered?
Time didn’t heal all wounds, it seemed. With sheer will, he shoved the memory aside, but the pain resounded inside him like remnants of a nightmare.
Olivia dropped her purse under the counter at the pharmacy, and Lou looked up from the computer where he hunted and pecked to enter a prescription order. “You’re late.”
“Sorry. I—” She stopped, remembering what Reyn had said. Five people knew they were investigating the fire. Reyn had insisted they not tell Sheriff Anders what they were doing until they had something solid to give him.
“I had…car trouble.” She watched Lou’s face carefully, holding her breath.
He began counting out pills, his nose scrunched as he concentrated. When he finished, he glanced at her, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “When you gonna get rid of that old rattletrap anyway? Only thing holding it together is the rust.”
“When you give me a raise.”
He barked a laugh and shook his head. “I walked into that one, didn’t I?” He snapped a lid on the prescription bottle and handed it to Olivia. “Mrs. Thibideaux called. She wants a refill of her allergy pills, but I haven’t had a chance to enter it in the computer yet.”
He poked his g
lasses back up the bridge of his nose and studied the next order form on the counter. He’d hardly blinked when she mentioned her car. She released a sigh of relief and greeted the customer who approached the register. Like she’d told Reyn, Lou was no killer.
A steady stream of business kept Olivia mercifully busy, her hands and mind occupied for most of the morning. Equally busy, Lou didn’t mention the confrontation that morning at the diner, for which she was extremely grateful. In light of the threatening note left on her windshield, she wasn’t sure how to proceed, what she could or should say if Lou did mention their investigation. She needed to talk about a strategy with Reyn.
But the steady business didn’t stop the occasional thought of Reyn from popping into her head. Once, a little boy came into the pharmacy with his mother, and she imagined Reyn as a child, sitting in the principal’s office for fighting, for defending his mother’s honor. Another time, when the air-conditioning kicked on, blowing on her neck and giving her a chill, she remembered the warmth and security of Reyn’s embrace that morning. His comforting gesture had been just what she needed at the time and fit the image of him forming in her mind. A man of honor and decency, a kind and gentle soul behind his hard exterior. Her dream man wrapped in a dreamy body.
When she thought of his tortured expression when he’d told her about his mother, a frisson of sympathy spun through her. Maybe learning the truth about his mother’s death would help heal the old wounds. And maybe she could help him work past the grief and pain that held him prisoner. But first he’d have to trust her enough to bridge the distance he kept between them.
Olivia sighed. Somehow she’d draw Reyn out. Somehow.
At noon, the bell over the front door tinkled, and she glanced up to greet the new customer as she had many times that morning. But her voice stuck in her throat.
Reyn stood in the doorway, his tall frame and broad shoulders filling the entry. It seemed the atmosphere in the pharmacy changed with his presence, charged and crackling with energy like the air preceding a storm. He stopped long enough to cast his gaze around the store before spotting her. With his gaze locked on her, he strode toward the register. The way he looked at her, predatory, possessive, made her toes curl. The look held a note of promise, hinted at things to come.
“Hey, handsome. Gimme one second, and I’ll be ready to go.”
“No rush.” He slid his hands in his jeans pockets.
She gathered her pocketbook and draped the strap over her shoulder. “So what did you do to keep busy this morning?”
Reyn shifted his gaze to Lou, who watched the two of them with interest. Taking her hand, he tugged her out from behind the counter and started for the door. “We’ll talk in the truck.”
His grip on her hand echoed the possessiveness of his gaze, and she savored the warm, encompassing grasp of his large hand. His touch gave her a delicious shiver, and when he sent her a quizzical look, she just smiled.
Once safely ensconced in his Sierra, he cast her a sideways glance as he cranked the engine. “Any problems this morning with Lou? How’d he act?”
“He acted like Lou. Sweet, lovable Lou. I even mentioned that I’d had car trouble, and he didn’t bat an eyelash, except to tell me I needed to ditch the jalopy, like he always says.”
Reyn grunted an acknowledgment as he backed out of his parking place and headed down Main Street.
“So what’s up with you? Any leads on getting a copy of the coroner’s report?”
“I made some calls this morning, and it looks like the autopsy records we need are kept in Baton Rouge. Since we can’t make it there and back during your lunch hour, I figure I’ll go alone after we grab a bite to eat.”
“Can you wait till tomorrow? I have Tuesday and Thursday afternoons off so I can get to my classes in Monroe on time.”
“Thanks, but I don’t need you to go with me.”
Olivia sighed patiently. “Reyn, I want to go with you. I want to help with this. Not just because of what Lila means to me, but because of that note. I won’t sit back and let someone make veiled threats against me without doing something to find out who did it and why.”
He was silent for several moments, scowling. Fine. He didn’t have to like it. But she would convince him somehow to take her with him. Reading an autopsy report on your mother had to be tough. She wanted to be there for him.
“Okay,” he said finally. “We’ll go tomorrow. I’m just ready to get started. The sooner we get the information we need, the sooner we can put this mess behind us.”
“Good. I’ll ask our babysitter Gloria to stay late with Katy, and I’ll be all yours.”
He gave her a goose-bump-raising look, and she realized what she’d said. Winking at him, she let the double meaning stand.
He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel restlessly. “I want to take a look in your attic, see if there’s anything else your dad left that would steer us in the right direction.”
“Sure. Anytime. The evening would be best, though. It’s sweltering up there during the day.”
“Mmm. Tonight maybe?”
“All right. You’re on.”
He fell silent for a moment, watching the other traffic with more concentration than needed. The seriousness in his face told her his thoughts had drifted elsewhere. “I’ve been thinking…”
“Yeah?” she prompted when he hesitated.
“If my mom was…murdered, there’d have to be a motive. I can’t think of any reason for someone to kill her, but then I was just a kid.”
“So where do you start looking for a motive? Her will? Did she keep a diary? Maybe insurance papers?”
“Any of those are possibilities. I’ll just have to sort through her personal papers and see what I come up with. I hate to ask Gram about where those papers would be, but I—”
“Check the shoe box under her sewing machine. That’s where Lila keeps her will and deed to the house and stuff.”
Reyn turned toward her with wide-eyed disbelief. “She keeps that stuff in a shoe box?”
She wrinkled her nose and nodded. “’Fraid so. When she showed it to me a couple years ago, I tried to convince her to get a lockbox at the bank. She said she wanted her things close by, knew her lawyer had copies if anything happened to hers.”
A frown creased his brow. “Why’d she show you where she kept her will?”
“She wanted me to know where they were…just in case something happened to her. So I could show you.”
Reyn pulled into the drive-thru of the only fast food restaurant in town, still frowning. “Burgers okay with you?”
“Sure.”
He said nothing as he studied the menu that was, no doubt, virtually the same worldwide, but obviously provided him an excuse to avoid her gaze.
“She trusts me, Reyn.”
His grip tightened on the steering wheel.
“And you can too.”
Now he faced her, his gaze searching hers as if seeking the assurance that he could, in fact, trust her. His piercing gray gaze probed hers, and she read emotions in their silvery depths that gave her a glimpse of the soul he worked so hard to protect. Loneliness. Longing. Lust. She felt his stare all the way to her bones, felt his need chipping away her own defenses. He didn’t look away until the tinny voice over the speaker box asked for their order.
“I’ve been thinking too,” she said as he pulled up to the window to pay.
“I’m not surprised.” He waved away the money she tried to give him and pulled out his wallet.
“Obviously confronting the firefighters as a team was a mistake. Maybe we should talk to them each individually then compare their answers.”
He shook his head. “One of them has already threatened us, and none of them had anything to say before. What do you think we’ll accomplish by taking them on one-on-one?”
“Maybe they’d feel freer to talk if the others weren’t around. Maybe they saw someone hanging around the area after the fire, found something in the ho
use that struck them as strange, any kind of detail we could follow up on.”
“Maybe, but until we know who left that threat, I don’t want you approaching any of those men by yourself.”
“So go with me. Considering how defensive they were, I have to wonder what they’re hiding.” She aimed a finger at him to punctuate her point. “Someone knows something. We just have to get them to talk.”
Reyn grunted. “They won’t talk to me. Most of the people who remember me don’t like and don’t trust me. I gave them plenty of reasons not to like me when I was a kid.”
She wanted to explore that topic with him more, but she saved her questions about his youth for later.
He rolled his shoulders and frowned. “I still think it’s a bad idea until we know who left that threatening note.”
“We can start with someone safe. Like Hank. He’s family, and I know I can get him to talk to us. Maybe over dinner tonight? As long as you’re going to be looking through my attic this evening, you might as well stay and eat.”
“Real food, huh? That’s a mighty tempting offer.”
She laughed and aimed a finger at him. “See. I knew you were the home-cooked meals type. Strip clubs, my eye.”
He narrowed a serious gaze on her. “This isn’t a date.”
Shrugging, she tucked her hair behind her ear. “Maybe, maybe not. Guess that depends on what we do after dinner, hmm?” She sent him a mischievous grin and waggled her eyebrows.
His eyes heated, and her smile faltered. The desire in his gaze stirred a fluttering sensation in her stomach, made her skin tingle with anticipation. She’d only been teasing him, but there was nothing playful about the hunger in his eyes.
Chapter Five
When the doorbell rang at six o’clock, Olivia added punctuality to the list of Reyn’s attributes.
By the time Olivia had turned down the spaghetti sauce, taken off her apron and stopped long enough to check her hair in the hall mirror, Katy was leading Reyn into the living room by the hand.
Reyn's Redemption Page 7